Institutional logics, institutional work and public service innovation in non-profit organisations

Based on empirical research with two non-profits, this article critiques structural explanations of non-profit service innovation, which portray innovation as a response to institutional contexts and downplay the power and role of human agents. We offer instead, a conceptualization of non-profit innovation in which human agency – and its interplay with institutional logics – is an integral feature. Specifically, we outline the ways in which non-profit actors draw upon the competing institutional logics available to them to frame and serve their interests. We find that actors’ assumptions and beliefs about the organization’s role in the institutional field and the practice of normative, discursive work are central tenets of both the maintenance and transformation of institutions. We also find instances of service stability and service innovation ensuing from non-profit actors’ agency in infusing organizational practices with interpretations and elaborations of institutional logics.